Finding vegan cake in London isn’t as tricky as it used to be. Veganism is on the rise and there are so many options readily available now compared to a decade ago.

At our London bakery, we still get asked lots of questions about vegan cake and how it’s the same or different to normal cake, and that’s fair enough.

Since one of our most popular recipes is our Vegan Hero Sponge recipe, in this post we want to  answer the top three questions we’re asked around vegan cake to help dispel some of the myths.

We really want to show you that vegan or not, the cake is still utterly yummy!

Are vegan cakes healthier than normal cake?

Vegan means no animal products or by-products, but if a cake is heavily processed, it’s still processed, vegan or not.

The main difference with a vegan cake is the lack of core ingedients like eggs and butter, but we’re sorry to tell you… just because a cake has no eggs or butter doesn’t put it in the category of “health food"!

An average cake is a delicious treat to enjoy here and there, and we’re afraid that the vegan version is just the same. Not healthier! There may well be less saturated fat, but the sugar and fat content is still high and as we know, sugar, fat and health don't necessarily go hand-in-hand.

If you’re making a vegan cake yourself, you’ve got an added advantage of knowing exactly what you’re putting in it, which helps avoiding ultra processed preservatives and additives.

If you want to bake your own vegan cake, here’s how we made a vegan lemon and pistachio cake at our London bakery - plus all the shenanigans that went along with it!

Isn’t vegan cake really dense?

When it comes to texture, vegan cake has a bad rep. Traditionally, in a normal cake, it’s the eggs that make things light and fluffy so it seems logical that without the eggs your cake will be dense.

But it doesn’t have to be this way!

To make a vegan cake light in texture, start with your oven. Make sure it’s pre-heated properly before you put your cake mixture in. That way you can be sure that there’s an even temperature throughout the oven which will help with the rising.

Getting your tin lined and ready in advance is a good plan too. If you leave your mixture standing around while you deal with your tins, it has the chance to lose air and go flat, leading to less rising and a denser texture.

If your recipe calls for creaming margarine and sugar together, do it with an electric whisk to capture air bubbles. And when it comes to adding flour, measure it out exactly. Too much flour will contribute to a dense cake but if you sift the flour in, high in the air, that can help to capture more air. Great for light and fluffy cakes.

Whatever you do, be sure to fold not beat in the flour since overbeating will develop the gluten more, resulting in heaviness.

Alternatively, just use our Vegan Hero Sponge recipe - no creaming involved, and totally fool-proof.

Does vegan cake taste any good?

Yes, yes and yes! At Anges de Sucre we think vegan cake tastes incredible and that you’d be hard pushed to tell the difference between vegan and normal cake. Everyone downloading our Vegan Hero Sponge recipe has said it's the best cake they have ever made and fools everyone into thinkign it couldn't possibly be vegan. Result!

So we hope that helps to answer some of the most common things we’ve been asked about vegan cake. What else would you like to know? Just leave us a question in the comments!